The Horror of Happiness

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 10: Foalsitting Starting Line

November 16th – I now know the secret to Starlight’s success in this village. Thanks to the assistance of Hidden Trek, I know why these ponies have the exact same cutie mark, and why so many are loyal to her. For what I’ve been told, she has a cave that inside there lays a glass vault where she stores all of their original cutie marks. It is from there that she uses a powerful spell to remove those marks to be placed into storage. Thereby giving those ponies completely blank slates for her to carve their destinies however she wants.

After that, they are placed in the Equalization House from across the street to brainwash them by having a loudspeaker giving an endless loop of slogans to listen to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re book and posters that gives those who are subjected to only her philosophies.

Since Trek is now in there and had his cutie mark removed, I wonder several things, how long will it take for the house to break him? Will he change his view of the world because of this? And more importantly, once the unicorn has been indoctrinated, what kind of task will Starlight gives him?

I must say, as part psychiatrist, this is rather creative for Ms. Glimmer’s part. I mean... the idea of removing not just their cutie marks, but also, their identities are rather ingenious for a fellow sociopath. While the obvious end result isn’t something I would do, I will give her credit about the efficiently of it all.

Still, this leaves me open to a few more questions. What drove her to form this philosophy of equality in the first place? Is there some sort of traumatic or some harsh experience that’s driven her to do this? How long has she been doing this for? Where did she learn to do this?

These questions come about because I know that, unlike psychopaths who are born with an unbalanced brain, sociopaths are created by the experiences of childhood and throughout one’s teenage years. The more I know about her past, the clearer it’ll be for me to know what it is I need to do with her. So in the meantime, I will carry on as usual and witness the brainwashing effects on Mr. Trek from afar.

---

Sugar Belle entered through the front door of the Line’s home. As she entered, she saw that at one end of the room, sat Dr. Lovejoy in his rocking chair – his phonograph playing a slow melody of an orchestra and a piano. On the other side on the couch was the Earth pony colt with his foreleg in a cast and his mother. Sandy Line looked over to the baker, “So, any news?”

“Well, Check Mate was released,” she said, “and he confessed of hurting your son. But as for Hidden Trek, however, he still hasn’t seen the light as of yet.”

“What about my little brother?” Starting asked.

Sugar Belle shook her head, “Nothing from what I’ve heard. It’s so odd too, I’ve never heard of anypony this young just up and leave.”

The mother got off the couch, sighing she said, “I really hope that we hear something from Finishing soon and that he’s alright.”

“Don’t get your hopes down Ms. Line, I’m sure he’ll come back any day now.”

“Anyway, I want to thank you for coming over on such short notice, I have to help my husband out with the garden and I needed somepony to watch over Starting while we’re gone, as well as Dr. Lovejoy.”

“It’s no problem at all. Even though it’s not really my turn to look after the gentlecolt yet,” she nodded over to the aged stallion.

“Before I head off, can I have a word with you real quick?” the baker told her that she can. Once outside of the house and closing the door behind them, Sandy leaned over to her ear and whispered, “I need you to keep an eye on both of them as much as possible. There’s something off about Lovejoy that I don’t trust having my son being around for too long.”

“Why’s that?”

“He was the last one to have seen Finishing before he disappeared. I’m going off of a hunch, but please be sure that he doesn’t do anything harmful to our son.”

“Sure, of course, I’ll keep an eye on the both of them.”

The mother smiled, “Thank you so much, Sugar Belle. I must go now, take care.”

The unicorn waved her goodbye to her as she entered back into the living room. She trotted over the injured colt, “So, Starting, how’ve you been today?”

Starting looked down at the cast, “I feel really itchy with this thing. Doc, are you sure I can’t take this off for a moment?”

He shook his head, “You’re not ready. If that were to come off, you’ll be in serious pain. However, with your permission, I know such a spell that takes care of such itching without taking off the bandages.”

“Please,” he said, “I think I’m gonna go crazy if this keeps going.”

“Very well,” Lovejoy’s horn lit up, “Now, hold still.” His aura surrounded the colt’s injured leg for a brief moment. A sigh escaped Starting’s mouth, “Better?”

“Much,” the colt reclined his head on a pillow.

“You know, since you two are here, I was wondering if I could ask you both a question.”

“Yes?” the baker asked.

“How did you two come to this village in the first place?”

Both, Starting Line and Sugar Belle. looked at each other, as if deciding which one should go first. “Well, for me,” the mare said, “I came because of a failed business I had and I borrowed from too many ponies to pay back.”

“From where?” the doctor asked.

“Applewood. I was given a loan on my little business but… as a baker, I wasn’t making nearly enough. Remarkably, when it went under… I found myself surrounded by several angry ponies that wanted their money back… that I didn’t have. So I uh,… ran for it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still ashamed of it, but what could I do? Then one day, I founded this place and they were in need of a baker so, I’ve stayed here ever since.” She ended it with a smile.

Lovejoy turned to the colt, “What about you and your parents? What’s your story?”

Starting shrugged, “Well, before we were… what’s that word? Evicted? Yeah, before we were evicted from our home, we had a house that was right next to the sea. In fact, my parents say that they built the house on the very spot that they first met. Back then, we would have the beach all to ourselves, where we play for the whole day.”

“You sound like you were happy then.”

He nodded but then frowned, “Yeah… but I remember mom and dad getting into fights about how to pay off for the stuff they used to build the house. My dad said that he was going to get a better job at something so they could pay it off… I don’t remember why but he was turned down so many times that by the time those ponies came and said that we had to leave; he begged them to give him more time to find some way to pay them. But as you can guess… that didn’t work out very well. We lost our home and we wondered through Equestria to find someplace that would give us a home. Then one day, we found this place.”

The doctor closed his eyes and nodded, “I see. How long have you been here?”

“About three years,” answered the colt.

“Eight years for me,” Sugar Belle told him.

“Tell me, do either of you know how long this village has been around?”

Starting tilted his head in confusion, looking at the mare for answers. “To be honest… I’m not exactly sure,” she said, “However, I do know that Double Diamond was one of the very first to come here about… ten years ago, I think? No, I’m sorry; he was the first pony in the village to follow Starlight now that I think of it.”

“Ah, this is a very young town,” the doctor continued to rock in his chair. “You know, this is a very curious town, full of so many questions. Like for example, I’ve noticed there’s a good size of foals running about, did they came here with their parents like yours Starting or were some of them born here?”

“Sometimes, we’d get a few babies,” the colt told him. “And since some of us who hadn’t earned our cutie marks before we came to this town, we didn’t have to go into the Equality House as the adults do. Instead, our neighbors teach us about how we should live and stuff like that.”

“That’s very interesting. But I’m wondering, what do you guys do to get those equal signs as cutie marks?”

“Well,” Sugar said, “When I first came here, I followed Starlight to a cave where she kept all of our past cutie marks so she could take them away and replace it with these,” she pointed at her flank. “For foals in Our Town, as soon as they get a different cutie mark, they go straight to Starlight so they could have theirs removed as well. You might say it’s like a rite of passage around here.

“You know Doctor Lovejoy, I wish that you would join us as well,” she smiled, “For the past week, you’ve started to become something like family to us. It just pains us that you still have your cutie mark.”

The doctor stopped rocking; he looked at his own blood-red mark. “You might say that I’m a little too proud to have this thing being taken away.”

“Excuse me, Dr. Lovejoy,” the colt asked, “What about you?”

“Pardon?”

“How did you come to the village?”

He smiled, “Let’s just say that I want to live the rest of my life in a quiet place where I could live life to the fullest. Oh, and before I forget,” Lovejoy turned to his worn out saddlebag and with his magic, pulled out a pouch, “Here you go, it’s the hard candy I have, you can take all of it.”

Starting Line’s eyes widen as he was given the bag of ginger candies, “You’re amazing, thank you!” with that, he immediately unwrapped one and shoved it into his mouth.

“Wow,” Sugar Belle said, “That was really kind of you.”

“It’s one of the very few things that I like being a doctor,” he told her, “is that I enjoy making other ponies, sick or depressed, quite happy.”

Comments

[mcfallen]

Ohoho, this is turning out quite nicely. Also, Lovejoy sounds very becoming of a Serial Killer. In the sense that it's not suspicious of course.

[Mix-up]

This was an informative chapter about the turning ons on Our Town, Doc Lovejoy seem to have taken an interest in Starlight's social experiment and we get to see why Sugarbell cam to Our Town as well as hat of the line family. Despite the fact that their reasons to for coming their are different for some reason seeing that their reasons for wandering there seem to be linked to money problem in the same chapter the writing felt a little weak on that end. I don't know if their are problem in imagining different reasons for why ponies would wander to Our Town but I can imagine quite a few ideas to have more verity to the myriad of speeches from the citizens. I could imagine that some got obsess with living up to their cutie mark in thinking that that it was the only way for them to be happy, but became sick of their own passions over time and rejected it or made them. I could imagine that ponies were rejected for their family because their cutie mark didn't line up with the family business or values. I could imagine that they see themselves as failures and couldn't live up to their calling and couldn't imagine doing anything els. I could also see that the pony is crippled and can't exercise their talent anymore. their could also be ponies that where forced between family/ friends or their passion and chose the lather over the former and cam to Our Town to prove their resolve. But after thinking of all of those possibilities, of why ponies might reject their cutie mark I could imagine that Starlight has some disciples outside of Our Town how specially redirect ponies to that place to make sure they wander there. there are also those ponies weren't satisfied with their cutie mark, those that where discriminated for them. I think that Starlight want to make believe to new comers that this is a place where they won't be judged for their cutie mark, which isn't true, as they are manipulated by Strlight to put all their trust in her. I wander if Equestria as anti cutie marks discrimination laws to prevent such things but their are always some how fall into the cracks. We know that Starlight goes as far as to brainwash ponies into rejecting heir cutie mark even going as far as make them change how they thought they saw their receive experience.

Checkmate is out of the Equalization Room I wander what he will do after ward, is he truly forgiven for his alleged crime by the ponies, will he be staying clear from the doctor, will he try to clear his name, will he be a loose ends that the doc will have to deal with?

I wander why the Doc desired to give the colt candy like that was it because he is making him as one of his next target or did he do it to get in good with the family. One things that I am sure of it wasn't for any form of sympathy on his part.

I wander when will the cat and mouse game is really going to start between the Lovejoy and Starlight?

I am really looking forward to see how Lovejoy is going turn into a mummy